Thesis One: That museum practice always needs a kick up the arse
Who's bringing out the new improved model?
“Typical Girls”, The Slits
Society is not a staircase with an end; it is a multitude of interconnected parts, rubbing up against each other and constantly changing. Society and the museums which exist within it need to recognise that, although it is very easy to be proud of steps which have been made…
- Inclusion (age, gender, disability, race) - at least in terms of audience* - Curatorial standards and conservation technology. Though if it is always an improvement is debatable. - Developments in design materials and technologies. - Developments in multimedia and digital media in displays and online.
...that...
- Pride is not enough. - Pride is downright destructive. - Pride is historically focused reflection. The muse of history staring back into the successes of the past. - Pride is a blindness to failure. Pretending that that which seems right in the immediate moment cannot be wrong long-term. - Pride is placid and complacent. The torpor of the successful.
Complacency - comfort - torpor -
– inhibits the desire to change. - inhibits the desire to try something new. - inhibits the desire to improve yet again.
Complacency is the enemy of the good. The good is incandescence. A bright rage and a tetchy anxiety which seeks to obliterate that which blocks its drive to a better state. Even - especially - if it made that thing in the first place. Success without the recognition of failure is not success at all.
Success is finding out what you have failed to do, and doing it.
Again. And again. And again.
*Parity has not been reached in terms of staff. I don't know why. We need to ask why. And look for the hardest answers.
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